This invention relates to an apparatus for dispensing container lids, and in particular to an apparatus for dispensing lids of the type including a circular top wall and a downwardly extending annular flange integral with the top wall.
It will be appreciated that lids of the type described above are commonly referred to as coffee cup lids. Such lids are used with styrofoam or hard plastic cups in cafeteria style restaurants and other establishments of the type which sell take-out coffee or tea. The usual practice is to remove the cover from the cardboard container carrying the lids, i.e. to leave the lids loose in the container. Quite often, the lids get mixed with lids of different sizes or are difficult to separate, i.e. the lids become jammed together.
Lid dispensers have been proposed, for example, by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,313,452, issued to J. Katz on Apr. 11, 1967 and 4,257,532, issued to C. M. Berg. The mere fact that the patented devices do not appear to be available to the public, strongly suggests that they do not offer satisfactory solutions to the problem of lid dispensing.
The object of the present invention is to provide a solution for the above defined problem in the form of a relatively simple mechanical lid dispenser, which dispenses lids of the coffee cup type one at a time.